By early July, clean drinking water had become one of the hardest things to find in Al Obeid.
Weeks of intensive drone attacks had damaged infrastructure across the North Kordofan city, including fuel depots and facilities essential to daily life. Access to potable water has become increasingly difficult. Communication was unreliable. As drone attacks intensified along the road linking Kosti and Al Obeid and within the city itself, 蘑菇视频 field missions were temporarily suspended.?
Yet despite the isolation, national 蘑菇视频 personnel and humanitarian partners continued working, supporting humanitarian operations while facing the same shortages as the communities they served.
Among them was Ahmed Babikir, 蘑菇视频DSS Community Liaison Assistant in Al Obeid. Supported by the Sudan Humanitarian Fund, the Community Liaison Assistants initiative has strengthened 蘑菇视频DSS engagement with communities across six locations in Sudan. The local knowledge gathered through those relationships provides a clearer understanding of rapidly changing conditions and helps inform security risk management.
Ahmed's reporting filled a critical information gap. With 蘑菇视频 missions to Al Obeid on hold throughout June, his updates became one of the few reliable windows into conditions inside the city. Together with route assessments from Kosti and continuous security analysis, his reporting helped lay the groundwork for the 5 July duty of care mission.
The duty of care convoy carried food, drinking water and medication procured by 蘑菇视频 organizations in Kosti for 蘑菇视频 and INGO personnel and more than 40 eligible dependants who had remained in the city throughout the escalation, continuing to support the local population.
For Ahmed, the mission also brought reassurance to his family, who had been following the situation from elsewhere in Sudan and worrying about his safety.
“When they saw that the 蘑菇视频 mission had reached us, they were very relieved. After that, they stopped asking me to leave Al Obeid.”
The visit also brought reassurance to those who had remained in Al Obeid supporting humanitarian operations for nearly?600,000 people?in and around the city who depend?on humanitarian?assistance, including water, sanitation,?protection?and food support.
Once the convoy?departed, Ahmed returned to the work that had kept aid workers informed throughout the month of elevated risk. Each day, he produces security reports, shares real-time information, supports humanitarian access?planning?and?maintains?close relationships with community leaders, including internally displaced people and women's groups. A critical piece of Ahmed’s work was how his reports were used by the Area Security Office and the Security Information and Operations Cell (SIOC) to shape pragmatic security advisories for aid workers, which he then disseminated to the aid worker community in Al Obeid.
"It helps to bridge a gap in security reporting,?information sharing?and access," he says. “There was a real need for security updates and planning.”
His reporting captures the daily challenges facing communities, particularly shortages of water and fuel, helping provide a clearer picture of conditions on the ground to support humanitarian planning.
Living in Al Obeid has also changed how he sees those challenges.
"I never really cared about rain before," Ahmed says. “But here, when I see how happy people become when it rains, how they watch the sky waiting for clouds, it changed my perspective.”
For Ahmed, understanding the security environment also means understanding how conflict shapes everyday life. That perspective continues to inform the reporting and relationships that support humanitarian access in Al Obeid.
"When colleagues told me my presence made them feel safer, it encouraged me to stay," Ahmed says. “It showed me that my work matters.”
In Al Obeid, security is built not only through assessments and planning, but also through relationships, local?knowledge,?and trust. Those connections continue to support humanitarian access and enable colleagues to stay and deliver in one of Sudan’s most challenging environments.